Messner
An occupational surname for a church caretaker or sexton, ultimately from a word meaning “one who tends the church.”
The #6,701 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 61,271 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Messner is a German occupational surname. The historical sources connect it to Middle High German forms such as mesenaere / messenaere, ultimately from Late Latin mansionarius, a term for the keeper or steward of a house or church building. In this line of development, the name came to mean a church servant, sacristan, or sexton rather than anything directly to do with the Mass itself.
History
The surname is especially common in German-speaking Alpine regions, where related forms such as Meßner and Messmer also occur. Older scholarship sometimes spelled out the link to church service and used the surname as a classic example of an occupational name. In some local traditions the name was also interpreted through nearby dialect forms, which helps explain the many spelling variants.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older etymologists explicitly warned that Messner is not primarily a surname derived from “Mass” or “church service” in the modern sense, but from a much older word for a church caretaker.
From the historical record
“MessikomM* s. Hof. Meßmer s. Meßner. Meßner III. ahd. mesinäri, mhd. messenaere aus mittellat mansionarius d. i. Wächter und Hüter des heiligen Gebäudes, „Kirchen- diener, Küster*. Erhalten ist das ursprüng-”
— Die deutschen FamiliennamenNotable people named Messner
- Reinhold Messner (b. 1944)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.